Miriam Ringel

Este artigo aborda o tema da responsabilidade a partir de perspectivas diversas em Todos os Nomes de José Saramago (1997). O artigo argumenta que José, o protagonista deste romance, está a passar por um processo que é típico para outros heróis masculinos na obra de Saramago: um homem que está em um processo de negligenciar a responsabilidade

My article aims to examine the presence of ethical sensitivity by discussing two topics: compassion and caring and the issue of evil and how to deal with it. In many novels, Saramago achieves this by combining irony and emotional restraint, enabling the reader to "anticipate" the outcome of a story that motivates feelings by addressing ethical concerns. I will discuss how compassion is a human virtue attributed to unique individuals in Saramago's work. Societies, however, are governed by other motives, which are devoid of compassion and practice no mercy. Survival, power, and greed are their primary motivators. As far as dealing with evil is concerned, Saramago's work provides a wide range of options. His heroes live in the shadow of existential danger, whether his books are based on historical events or are about universal issues. Examples from his work, his Cadernos, and interviews will illustrate this claim.

A morte na sociedade moderna não tem valor intrínseco além de outros valores e muitos autores ficcionais apresentam a questão da morte nas suas obras. O nosso principal objetivo neste artigo é olhar e examinar como os escritos de Saramago abordam as várias formas de morte que aparecem na sua obra. Nesta discussão, o autor envolve o leitor num tópico complicado. Ao fazê-lo, ele coloca-se numa posição a partir da qual o leitor também pode refletir. A morte, segundo Saramago, é uma parte necessária da vida. Nessa visão, a morte não é meramente um evento contingente. Torna-se uma tarefa ou um projeto existencial. Na obra de Saramago, a morte é um tema que possibilita a discussão da autenticidade e da inautenticidade. As visões de Saramago correspondem às de Heidegger sobre a

This article will examine solidarity in Saramago's work. In his work, a kind of "game" identifies solidarity, which constitutes his ethical sensibility. I find that Saramago rarely speaks directly of solidarity as a social value. In most cultures, freedom and solidarity go hand in hand with human dignity and moral responsibility. When it comes to Irony, it often accompanies Saramago's work, and I will give some examples and focus mainly on A jangada de pedra (1986), the novel in which Saramago's development of the idea of solidarity is particularly ironic.

The absurdity arises from this confrontation between the human cry and the irrational silence of the world (Albert Camus).1 The great novelists are philosophical novelists-that is, the contrary of thesis-writers… But in fact the preference they have shown for writing in images rather than in reasoned arguments is revelatory of a certain thought that is common to them all, convinced of the uselessness of any principle of explanation and sure of the educative message of perceptible appearance. They consider the work of art both as an end and a beginning. It is the outcome of an often unexpressed philosophy, its illustration and its consummation. But it is complete only through the implications of that philosophy… The novel in question is…so like that of love. Of love, fictional creation has the initial wonder and the fecund rumination.2 Saramago's work captures situations in which the main and secondary protagonists find themselves in absurd situations that motivate them to act or leave them in an absurd situation without being able to find a way out. Saramago presents the concrete suffering of an individual personality alongside the suffering of many people. The private case is an expression of a flaw in the reality that some of the main characters are rebelling against. In saying the "no" that characterizes the rebellious hero, there is a hope not only for the change that will take place but for the possibility that other people will also move to action. Saying the "no" of the Saramago hero is kept within positive values and allows Saramago to present a world of values that does not pretend to be new. Therefore, negation is moral and it is not a negation of a world that has no meaning. In the absurd world, Camus tells us in: In this universe, the work of art is then the sole chance of keeping his consciousness and of fixing its adventures. Creating is living doubly…and all absurd men indulge every day of their lives. All try their hands at miming, at repeating, and at recreating the reality that is theirs. We always end up by having the appearance of our truths. All existence for a man turned away from the eternal is but a vast mime under the mask of the absurd. Creation is a great mime.3 1 Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (trans. Justin O'brien, Penguin Classic, 1979). 2 Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 92-93. 3 Ibid., 87.

Text read in Coimbra, in the 5th International Colloquy "Figures of Fiction", under the theme «Character Dynamics», November 2017.
The article was published in  Blimunda 68, January 2018


https://www.josesaramago.org/blimunda-68-janeiro-2018/

This article examines the theme of responsibility from variety perspectives in "All the Names" by Jose Saramago. The article argues that Jose is passing a process that is typical to other males heroes in Saramago's work: a man who is in a process of neglecting responsibility.

Grief for the calamity of another is a pity, and arises from the imagination that the like calamity may befall himself; and therefore is called also compassion1 Stimulate Compassion and Caring In the first chapter I discussed the theories related to imagination and moral imagination, this chapter aims to illuminate the concept of "ethical sensitivity" through the ability to identify the ethical issues related to the stimulate of compassion and caring, and to the manifestations of evil and the ways to deal with it. My aim is to clarify how to discover or learn about sensitivity within situations or ethical issues through the moral imagination in Saramago's work. The literary text directs its meanings through language. When we ask ourselves about the processes in which the text may develop ethical sensitivity, it seems that the outline proposed by Kekes, and mentioned in the introduction, will come to our aid. The literary text offers us a kind of simulation of a corrective experience. If we do not experience ethical sensitivity, it often results from despair and pessimism. Saramago rarely uses in his work the Portuguese word Compaixão which means "compassion" and tends to use the word "Piedade" which means "mercy". This is probably the result of the Christian culture on which he was educated, representing "Pieta", in works of art showing Virgin Mary holding Jesus, her dead son, who was brought down from the cross (from the Italian word Pietà, meaning mercy). In the novels of Saramago, who is a clearly an ironic writer, we find out that the interpretation of feelings of compassion and caring is often hidden under the cloak of irony and will sometimes have to be found between the lines. When Saramago uses very little the word "compassion," he refers to the situation ironically. It is interesting that in places where the word "compassion" is not mentioned at all, it presents compassionate situations.

A novel examines not reality but existence. And existence is not what has occurred, existence is the realm of human possibilities, everything that man can become, everything he's capable of. Novelists draw up the map of existence by discovering this or that human possibility.1 ... There are arts whose purpose is to entertain, which are dance, poetry and representational art. There are arts whose purpose is to "find favor" that are sculpture, painting and architecture. There are arts whose purpose is to "influence," which are music, literature and philosophy.2 The choice to deal with the connection between literature and philosophy has many reasons, and many philosophers have been dealing with this question in recent years. Literature is often adapted to real life more than philosophy because it calls for the imagination and sensitivity of the readers and provokes a deep response. Literature encourages us to think about moral matters even if we do not control the philosophical lexicon. It helps us to pay attention to the context, details and nuances of moral situations. It helps to accept the inevitable ambiguity of the difficulties that arise when we want to solve moral problems, but at the same time creates a reflection on the importance of the limits of ethical theory. Literature shows how abstract ideas become dramatic in the behavior of individuals and groups. Literature helps to broaden the sensitivity and understanding of points of view described in different cultures and helps us empathize with the suffering of others. As Rorty, one of the philosophers who dealt with the subject explains: "Fiction like that of Dickens...gives us the details about kinds of suffering being endured by people to whom we had previously not attended… Henry James or Nabokov give us the details about what sorts of cruelty we ourselves are capable of, and thereby lets us redescribe ourselves. That is why the novel, the movie, and the TV program have, gradually but steadily, replaced the sermon and the treatise as the principal vehicles of moral change and progress." 3 Attentive readers are readers who actively bring criticism and intelligent sensitivity to the world of romance in the process in which they become partners within it. Saramago's scholars avoided dealing with the ethical dimensions of his literary work and they were satisfied with the numerous non-literary texts he wrote as expressing 1

Life ultimately means taking responsibility for finding the right answer to a person's problems and for performing the roles that they constantly pose to each and every individual.1 I may have a morbid conception of responsibility, as if mine is the collective responsibility. In other words, a person has responsibility for himself, and another responsibility that he cannot identify. It is a sense of responsibility that I will call ontological, as if the person is approaching the shore like a sea wave that is like our lives. And behind us there is a mass of water that pushes us, and without this amount of water, we are nothing. If we part from this mass, the wave, which is us, has no meaning, because it will lack the power of the sea, the tide that is pushing us. Well, this sense of tide that drives us has little to do with the collective sense of culture and history.2

À noite, enquanto passeava no jardim para acalmar os nervos, tive uma idea que explicará melhor o que quero dizer: foi como se, até ao Evangelho, eu tivess andado a descrever uma estátua, e a partir dele tivesse passado para o interior da pedra. (Saramago, 1998: 122, grifo nosso).